The Corps can trace its origins back to the 15th Century but engineering has played it's part in war since time began.

1717 - The Corps was formed as the "Officers Corps of Engineers" with the dirty work being carried out by civilian Artificers.1772 - The Soldier Artificer Company was formed.1787 - The title "Royal" was awarded.1812 - The Corps name changed to the "Corps of Royal Sappers & Miners.1856 - Name reverted to "Corps of Royal Engineers"1912 - Royal Flying Corps (Military Wing) formed. This remained as part of the Royal Engineers untill 1918 when the RAF was formed.1920 - Royal Corps of Signals formed from the RE Signals Service.1965 - RE Transportation and Movements Service became the Royal Corps of Transport.

The Royal Engineers along with the Royal Artillery carries the Motto "UBIQUE" (Everywhere). No Colours or Battle Honours are carried by the corps as Ubique cover all.The Corps Nickname is the "Mudlarks"37 Victoria Crosses have been awarded to the Corps. The most famous of these was Lt John Chard who took charge of the garrison at Rorke's Drift during the Zulu War 1879.In 1872 the Royal Engineers took part in the first ever FA Cup Final losing 1-0 to Wanderers. This match was replayed during the FA Centenary Year 1972 with the RE getting their revenge by beating Wanderers 7-1

Raised as the 62nd Foot in 1755 from Colonial troops and the British Foreign Legion (Swiss, German & Dutch) in America.

1756 - Renumbered as 60th American Foot and on Christmas Day the same year became the 60th Royal American Regiment.1824 - renamed 60th Duke of Yorks Rifle Corps1830 - Name changed to 60th Kings Royal Rifle Corps1881 - changed to Kings Royal Rifle Corps1958 - Redesignated as 2nd Battalion Green Jackets KRRC1966 - Merged with other Green Jacket Btns to form the Royal Green Jackets.2007 - Amalgamated with the Light Infantry to form "The Rifles"

Due to their dispersal on the battlefield, no Colours have been awarded to this regiment and many of the 90 plus battle honours are displayed on the cap badge.Nicknames are many and have changed over the years - The Jagers, the 60th, The Kings Rich Rude Rifles & The Kaisers Own being some of those used.64 VC's have been awarded to the Regiment.Although known by the name "Corps" they have always been a regiment never a corps.The KRRC hold the last position of foot regiments in the order of precedence. This was a voluntary position awarded to them due to their history of always being the last off the field of battle.

REME is one of the few units to be awarded the title "Royal" on its formation

Set up in two phases.

Phase 1 - 1942. Set up to carry out all repair and maintenance on units outside of the remit of the RE, RASC, Signals and Regiment that had their own driver mechanics. Recruits were from other corps and skilled civillians

Phase 2 - 1949. Direct recruiting. All work formerly carried out by RASC Transport corp was handed over to REME along with groundwork for the Army Air Corps, Ship refitts and mobile workshops became standard and units were attached to each regiment.LAD's - Light Aid Detachments were also formed in this year. These were small units of up 80 men along with mobile eqipment that could be sent in to any theatre of war or civillian disaster zone at a moments notice.

REME & VW.After WW2 the VW Works in Germany fell into the British Zone. Col McEvoy REME was given the task of restoring the factory. He had driven a VW Beetle at its launch in 1939 and was impressed by it. His intention was to build a few for racing but his main directive was to restart production of the Kublewagen due to a shortage of light vehicles. This proved fruitless due to bomb damage of the factory machinery. McEvoy called in his most technical man, Major Ivan Hurst and order him to sort things out one way or another. Hurst set to work and managed to get production of the Beetle up and running again (only about 100 cars had been built since 1939). Hurst was able to get orders for up to 20000 cars to military governments but he thought the project was too big for him so he offered the company to British car companies. All rejected the deal because they all thought the car was impractical. Hurst persavered and by 1949 the factory was producing over a 1000 cars a week. At this point, the British Government stepped in and handed the factory back to the Germans. So without REME, we would probably never of had the worlds most famous mass produced car.

It would prove impossible to show a full history of this regiment without reference to sectarianism.The regiment also suffered both political and religious controversy throughout its short history. However, due to its uniqueness and the fact it was part of the British Army I feel it is worth its place in this thread

1970 - Regiment formed - 7 Battalions (Mostly part time volunteers)1973 - Women admitted to regiment (1st Regt of the British Army to admit Women directly into regiment)(Womens section nicknamed the "Goldfinches)1976 - Regt became a full time regular unit - 4 Battalions added.1992 - Regt disbanded and merged with Royal Irish Rangers to form the Royal Irish Regiment2006 - Queen retroactively awards Regt with Conspicuous Gallantry Cross.- CGC

The UDR was the largest regiment of the British Army in its history.The Regt served 22 years on active service, a record for any British Regiment and in all that time they never saw action outside of Northern Ireland.They are the only unit ever to carry a medal citation in their title.Also unique in the fact that they had their own Transport Section, Dog Section, Air Wing, Boat Patrol, Signals Unit and Communications Section. ( Intially, communications was a little hit and miss. The soldiers were each given a handfull of loose change so they could phone HQ from a payphone)